Israeli Leftists Offer Aid and Comfort to Arab Killers of Fogel Family

April 17, 2011

Machsom Watch Radicals and Fogel Family Killers

Machsom Watch spokeswoman Raya Yaron comforts the mother of one of the Fogel family murderers

Israeli Left's Solidarity with Itamar Killers

Nissan 13, 5771, 17 April 11 10:45by Maayana Miskin

(Israelnationalnews.com) Shortly before the IDF revealed the identities of the two murderers of five members of the Fogel family, activists with the extreme Israeli left went to visit one killer's family – and condemn Israel for detaining him.

Members of Women for Peace (Nashim L'Shalom), Gush Shalom, and Adam Lelo Gvulot traveled to the Palestinian Authority-controlled village of Awarta, next to Itamar, where the IDF had been conducting intensive investigations into the recent attack.

"The atrocity we saw in the home of Mohammed Awad can only be described as a pogrom, as primitive and brutal revenge aimed at putting fear in residents' hearts," activist Yaakov Manur wrote of the visit one week ago. "The father, 45-year-old Mohammed, his son Majdi, 20, a third-year student in university, son Amjad, 19, a second-year student at university, and Hakem, 17, were arrested."

Amjad, 19, was later revealed to be one of the murderers. He and fellow murderer Hakim Awad told investigators they had received help and support from their relatives after murdering Udi and Ruti Fogel and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, three months old.

The leftist activists apparently did not realize that the Awad family was involved in the murders, and simply believed the family's claims that Israel was treating them badly for no reason.

The Yisrael Sheli (My Israel) Movement said Sunday that the leftist groups had crossed a line. "The time has come to make leftist groups that support murderers illegal. Whoever supports baby killers has no place in a democratic society," the group said in a statement.

"Leftists groups' encouragement for terrorists, which joins the Palestinian Authority incitement, and author Amos Oz's support for murderer Barghouti, ultimately creates human monsters like the murderers from Awarta."

MK Michael Ben-Ari (Ichud Leumi) called on Attorney General Yehudah Weinstein to investigate the groups that went to Awarta to provide support to the terrorists' families. "By their acts, they incited to violence," he wrote.

He added, "Today we see the extreme Left's true face. These are their friends, these are the people they defend!"

MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said the Israelis who expressed solidarity with the Awad family had reached a moral low. "They cannot comfort their brothers in Itamar, but run to show solidarity with the enemy," she said.

Machsom Watch Radicals and Fogel Family Killers

Machsom Watch spokeswoman Raya Yaron comforts the mother of one of the Fogel family murderers

Even the murders of Jewish children in their beds in the community of Itamar weren't enough to deter extreme Israeli left-wingers from offering expressions of solidarity with families of the suspected perpetrators. Members of Machsom Watch visited the Palestinian town of Awarta to comfort those whose relatives were under arrest. Spokeswoman Raya Yaron is seen above in what may come to be an iconic image of the far-left alliance with Palestinians against Israel. Israeli media and blogs have taken up the subject. Blogger Yaacov Lozowick observes he'd previously been tolerant of far-left activities but has drawn a line. He writes:

For years I've believed - and have said in print - that for all my disagreements with far-left Israelis, they were a legitimate voice and deserved respect for criticizing from inside the war zone: if proven wrong, they'd be here to pay the price; when Palestinian or Hisballah murderers do their best to kill random Israeli Jews, the far-left Israelis are here along with all the rest of us. This creates a qualitative distinction between them and their foreign fellows in malice.

I'm no longer convinced. As I've long been documenting in this blog, the contribution Israel's radicals make to the Big Lie against Israel is immense; sometimes the entire anti-Israeli argumentation comes from them. Absent them and the hatred of the Jewish State wouldn't go away, but its purveyors could present far fewer arguments.

This week we've had a further example which to my mind crosses all the lines of simple human decency. The Hebrew part of the Internet has been all a-buzz about the story of the Israeli radicals who went to the West Bank town of Awarta to give succor to the families of the murderers of the Fogel family, while disseminating unforgivable slander against the IDF and the law enforcement agencies.

As Arutz 7 notes, the actions of Machsom Watch raise questions about the group's funding. NGO Monitor points out there are financial links to the New Israel Fund.